Tifal language
Tifal is an Ok language spoken in Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Tifal and Urap and Atbal.
Geography
The Tifal language is bounded by Papuan and Irian Jaya speakers to the south and west, the Telefomin valley in the east, and the Sepik river to the north.Orthography
| Phonemic | ɑ | ɑː | b | d | eː | f | i | iː | k | l | m | n | ŋ | o | oː | s | t | u | uː | w | j |
| Lowercase | a | aa | b, p | d | e | f | i | ii | k | l | m | n | ng | o | oo | s | t | u | uu | w | y |
| Uppercase | A | Aa | B | D | E | F | I | Ii | K | L | M | N | O | Oo | S | T | U | Uu | W | Y |
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Mid | eː | o oː | |
| Open | ɑ ɑː |
and rarely contrast.
| Phoneme | Condition | Allophone | Realization elsewhere |
| /i/ | word-initially and finally | ||
| /a/ | word-initially and finally | ||
| /u/ | word-initially and finally | ||
| /eː/ | in open syllables, before /m/, and between /j/ and /p/ | ||
| /o/ | before /n/ or /ŋ/; between /t/ and /k/ |
Phonotactics
Syllable structure is V. The expression kwiin takan 'oh my!' may be an exception.only occurs word-initially. only occurs syllable-initially. is always syllable-final.
Initial only occurs in some dialects. Initial occurs in two dialects, and may usually be interpreted as C+V.
and occur syllable-initially. Only one dialect allows syllable-coda.
Stress
In inflected words stress lies on the last syllable of the verb stem. Otherwise, if there are long vowels stress falls on the first in the word. If all vowels are short, stress falls on the last syllable if it is closed and the first syllable otherwise.Grammar
Nouns
Nouns are not inflected but may mark possession. Body parts and kinship terms are obligatorily possessed, and some kinship terms require affixing. On other nouns possession is optional, except for proper names which are never possessed.Pronouns
| Suffix meaning: | Poss. | Subj. | Definitive | Inst. | First | with, and, also |
| Suffix: | -mi~ni | -i~-di | -yo | ta | -siik/-siin | soo/soono |
| Suffix meaning: | Poss. | Inst. | 'only' | 'like, simile' |
| Suffix: | -mi~ni | ta | -kal | tab |
Verbs
Tifal has a rich aspectual system. Verbs may be separated into four groups based on how they transform from continuative to punctiliar aspect. Some only have vowel and/or simple stem changes, some have suppletive stems, some change compound-final stems, and some which have allomorphs which add -laa-min to the stem.Verbs also can be divided based on transitivity. Some require direct objects, some with optional objects, some with optional locational objects, and a few intransitive verbs.
| verb | ben. | ben. | -laa | tense | person | mood | statement-final marker |
Tense and aspect
Most final verbs mark tense, mood, and person, but most verbs can mark aspect and not tense and still be a final verb.- "initial consonant of the customary or class changing marker is retained"